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Sunday, July 12, 2015

**EDITED** am730 Editorial: Hong Kong-style investigative TV series

I came across this article the other day and felt like
sharing it. The article is a quick,
interesting read that discusses some of the most common ‘characteristics’ of
Hong Kong’s investigative/mystery TV series.
Now of course, whether we view these ‘characteristics’ as positive or
negative is up to the reader/audience, as each person’s viewpoint is different
(though the writer of the article seems to view these characteristics as negative
based on the sarcastic tone that he/she used to write the article).

Obviously, the writer is mainly referring to TVB’s series
in the article (I guess we could say that is one disadvantage of being the only
TV station in HK – when they is ‘criticism’ about “HK television series”, 99.9%
of the time they are talking about TVB series).
With that said though, there IS mention of HKTV in the article and one
of their series was talked about as having a similar ‘formulaic’ aspect to it
(I’m sure those who’ve been following HKTV can guess which series, as I know we’ve
talked about it in discussion forums). To
be honest, HKTV’s series also have some formulaic stuff in them, but I’m able
to be more forgiving towards them because 1) they did put in huge effort to ‘break’
from the traditional TVB formula and produce series that are different from
what HK audiences are used to; 2) they dare to explore topics that are ‘taboo’
or off-limits in HK (i.e. politics, Mainland/HK conflict, etc.), and 3) they
have not been in existence for long (though some may argue that they are
technically ‘illegitimate’ since they don’t have a license) and already they
are exploring different things, whereas TVB has been around for more than 4
decades and despite their series going downhill, they still refuse to change.

Anyway, I digress…..going back to the article, how many
of the below defining characteristics of HK television series do you agree
with?

P.S.: In my
translation, I tried to keep the writer’s sarcastic tone as much as possible,
since the sarcasm is really what makes this article an interesting, witty read. However, I recommend reading this article as
it was originally written (in Cantonese) to get the full effect.

In the past few decades, Hong Kong’s biggest (and only)
TV station has come out with its fair share of investigative series (推理劇).
[TN: for the purposes of this article, I
will use the word ‘investigative series’ to describe推理劇 however those who prefer ‘detective series’
or ‘mystery series’, feel free to use those terms instead]. These types of series generally have an
abundant, complicated storyline and are almost guaranteed to pull in good
ratings – indeed, these series had their glory days for a period of time. However, as we all know, the traditional path
for HK’s scriptwriters is to get ‘inspiration’ for their stories from American,
Japanese, and Korean investigative series as well as novels. This is why, in many of HK’s TV series, we
often see familiar story concepts such as those found in the works of [Japanese
novelist] Jiro Akagawa (赤川次郎),
manga series Case Closed (aka Detective Conan), American series such as NYPD
Blue and CSI, etc. Now of course,
the scriptwriters can’t copy those works verbatim, so they will always mix in
some of their own ‘ideas’ to the story so as to make it their own – and with
that, the ‘essential characteristics’ of HK television series was born.

1.Working
professionals (專業人士)

In HK series, the main lead is
usually a working professional of some sort:
police officer, lawyer, doctor, high-ranking detective, forensics
investigator, professor, etc. Sometimes
the character may even have more than one occupation that covers a combination
of these professions. What about ancient
(costume) series, you ask? Constable,
guard, magistrate, bureaucratic official, etc. -- take your pick. Oh and if they have any sort of martial arts
skill, it makes their job of solving cases much easier! Actually, Western series often go the ‘professional’
route as well, so we’re not too far off, I suppose. Besides, in recent years, we’ve seen more of
an emergence of less professional characters such as insurance agents, theater
masters, etc. – I guess we can consider that a bit of improvement!

2.One
case per week (每周一單case)

Everyone knows that most Western
investigative series utilize the ‘one case per episode’ route, which makes the
story fast-paced and tightly written. HK
investigative series on the other hand, usually have two cases spanning 1 week,
with 1 story easily taking up 3 to 4 episodes.
Investigative costume dramas, such as Justice Pao for example,
are usually only 1 case per week, which of course means that the plot develops
unbelievably slowly and oftentimes the story drags. Actually, HKTV’s chairman Ricky Wong (王维基) had tried changing things up at
one point, sending his scriptwriters overseas to learn the American way of
filming series in the hopes of bringing a ray of light to HK audiences. But we all know how that ended up, right? No need for further explanation there! So all you HK audiences out there, don’t even
think about getting to watch this type of fast-paced investigative HK series
any time soon!

3.‘Perfect’
main leads (完美主角)

If you notice in most HK
investigative series over the past decades, the main leads are all physically
fit and mentally as well as psychologically competent. Dayo Wong’s (黃子華) character Detective Mok from TVB’s 2003 series To
Catch the Uncatchable (棟篤神探) can be considered a rare exception, as he
has asthma, so he is not able to heroically carry the series’ female lead Ada
Choi (蔡少芬) out of an
inferno (like all his other counterparts have done with their female leads). Scriptwriters of Western series already
realized a long time ago that having their main characters be ‘perfect’ is way
too unrealistic, so they will usually add some type of ‘flaw’ to the character –
for example, making the character have an obsessive-compulsive disorder or some
type of physical handicap.

4.Suspects
voluntarily confess (疑兇自爆)

Don’t know why, but in most HK
investigative series, when it comes to solving cases, the pattern is almost
always the same: when the suspect is
caught and questioned on whether he is the killer, he will first give you that ‘how
did you know?’ look, then inevitably he will confess to the crime. Not only that, he will then start describing
in detail every bad thing he did and his justification for doing it – things that
perhaps you already knew as well as things that you didn’t. Boy do we wish that criminals in real life
would be this cooperative – we could save a lot of money in attorneys’ fees and
also a lot of precious public time and money!

5.Reenactment
of cases (案件重演)

In HK investigative series, once
the suspect confesses to the crime, there’s no need to wait for Police
Report (警訊) to find out the details of the
crime. Automatically, the case will go
into the ‘reenactment’ stage, the scene’s background color will change to
either black and white or a lighter color, and the suspect will then start ‘telling
his story’ from the beginning: how he
killed the victim, how he disposed of the body, how he framed someone else for
the crime, how he misled the police, etc. etc.
In fact, the description will be so detailed that audiences pretty much
only need to watch those few minutes of confession and they will already know
the exact story that occurred in the previous few episodes.

6.Voiceover
accompaniment (v.o.配畫面)

HK’s TV stations generally
believe that reenacting a case in detail is not enough to help the housewives (whose minds are probably numb from doing household chores all day) or the elderly folks (who
most likely have weakened vision) understand the case completely from beginning
to end. Therefore, they (the TV
stations) will very ‘attentively’ add voiceover (旁白)
to accompany the reenactment scenes: for
example, the scene shows the suspect standing over the victim, knife in hand,
ready to stab -- the voiceover accompanying that scene involves the suspect
saying, “At that moment, I decided to stab him!” Another example: the scene shows the suspect digging a big
hole in the ground, obviously to bury the body, yet it is necessary to have the
voiceover say “I dug a hole and buried the body.” So
attentive indeed!

7.Homosexuals
are killers? (同志係兇手？)

An earlier analysis of HK
television series concluded that HK-style investigative series with homosexual
characters usually will portray them as killers or other criminals. A recent example is last year’s TVB series Officer
Geomancer (八卦神探) where the lesbian character portrayed by Pauline
Chow (周寶霖) ended up being a serial killer. Oh and remember Kevin Cheng’s (鄭嘉穎) character in 2007’s The
Ultimate Crime Fighter (通天幹探) and Kiwi Yuen’s (袁潔儀)
character in 2005’s Into Thin Air (人間蒸發)? Both were homosexuals and both ended up being
murderers. In the few instances where
homosexual characters are not written as killers or murder suspects, they are still
not portrayed in a good light, with those characters usually being a villain or
a bad person. I wonder if this is
considered being prejudiced?

8.Love
story, love story, and more love story (愛情、愛情再愛情)

Not sure if HK’s scriptwriters feel
that most Hong Kongers’ lives are dull and uninteresting so they feel the need
to ‘spice things up’ with complicated love relationships. In practically every investigative series,
the scriptwriters will add at least one (though more often than not it’s ‘many')
love relationship line for each of its main characters – the most classic
example of this is Detective Investigation Files IV (刑事偵緝檔案IV),
which featured 2 male leads and 4 female leads in love relationships that at times
overshadowed the plot itself. It’s
almost as though if a series doesn’t have complicated love relationships, no
one will watch. Wait a minute….I
remember now that a scriptwriter told me once that there really was a series
that had no love relationship lines whatsoever – the ratings ended up in the
toilet and the station even threatened to ax the series! Well, in that case, what else can I say
except to admit that HK audiences truly do need love relationships in order to
survive?

9.The ‘twins’
antidote (孖生解藥)

With investigative series, we
know that scriptwriters are endlessly immersed in conjuring up various ideas
for their cases. So it’s reasonable to
expect that, at times, they will come up with cases so complicated that even
they cannot come up with a plausible way to solve them! Well, no worries, because when in a rut, the
sure-fire way to resolve it is to add a twin brother or twin sister character
to the mix! A few examples: Ram Tseung’s (蔣志光)
character in 1997’s Mystery Files (迷離檔案) as well as Maggie Siu’s (邵美琪)
character in Detective Investigation Files IV (刑事偵緝檔案IV)
both had twin siblings who ended up being killers (though it’s not discovered
until after the characters appear to suffer from schizophrenia, only to realize
afterwards that it was the twin all along).
Even HKTV’s The Borderline (警界線) had to resort to the ‘twins’
storyline in order to resolve the ‘mystery’ of killer Pandora’s true identity.

10.‘Everything
goes’ ending (合該有事)

As if all the ‘out of the
ordinary’ cases that the main leads experience throughout the series is not
enough (hey, in real life, there are cops who’ve been in the police force for
30 years and don’t encounter the ‘extraordinary’ cases the characters in
investigative series do), the scriptwriters find it necessary to make the lead
characters' lives as ‘dramatic’ in the finale as possible. Therefore, in the series’ final case, the
tables are usually turned on the main leads, with them either being framed or
getting into all manner of trouble that is [seemingly] impossible to get out
of. Oh and of course, in the end, the female
lead and / or her family have to be pulled into the mess as well, with the most
common situation being kidnapping or holding them hostage. Don’t believe me? Go ask Jessica Hsuan (宣萱)!
[TN:
Haha…I laughed at that last part – Jessica probably holds the record for
being kidnapped/held hostage the most in TVB series].

****

Here’s my take on the 10 ‘characteristics’ that the article describes:

The first point about working professionals I actually don’t have a problem with, as it’s kind of hard to avoid. I basically don’t see a problem with going the ‘working professional’ route as long as the story is written well.

Point #2 I’m definitely in agreement with, as that’s one of the main reasons why a lot of the series get so draggy (though there’s other stuff too, such as the love relationship thing they mentioned in #8). In fact, isn’t that one of the
biggest complaints with TVB’s series in general – that they aren’t “fast-paced” enough and drag on and on unnecessarily?

Point #3 is a bit of an exaggeration (especially with the ‘carrying the female lead out of an inferno’ part), but it does have some truth to it in that oftentimes the main leads in HK series truly are ‘too perfect’. This one is pretty
much an indirect critique on the lack of character development in many of TVB’s scripts.

Point #4 -- I agree that the suspect confession thing truly is overused in most of TVB’s investigative series – the writer made a good point with the example of criminals not being so “cooperative” in real life…I mean, how many times have
we seen a suspect get arrested, get proven guilty, and go to jail, but never once confess to committing the crime? Too many times to count.

Points #5 and 6 had me laughing really hard. Yes, the writer was overly sarcastic (I don’t think the housewives and the elderly would appreciate being stereotyped like that), but what he/she said is very true. This is pretty much a jab
at the constant redundant dialogue in TVB’s scripts, which we already know is a big problem for them (this is definitely not the first time it’s been brought up). When I first read this point, I was reminded of something I had read about HKTV a few years
back, how Ricky Wong was so adamant about his scriptwriters not having redundant, wasteful dialogue in their scripts – his philosophy was: the less dialogue, the better. It’s obvious that HKTV spent a lot of time refining this area in their scripts, which
I as an audience definitely appreciate…

Personally, I’m glad they put point #7 in there because the way TVB portrays / handles homosexual characters has been a long-standing problem with their series and one that is extremely disturbing given how huge an influence their series
have on society. The part I’m not sure of is whether they handle the characters this way out of ignorance or out of bias – either way, it’s definitely a problem. I will have to say that, so far, I definitely appreciate the approach that HKTV has taken to
homosexual characters in their series (which is completely opposite of TVB’s) – and like The Menu’s scriptwriter Poon Man Hung said during an interview: since she does not have experience writing about homosexual characters and therefore doesn’t have the
confidence that she can handle the subject properly, she would rather just touch on it briefly like she did in The Menu and leave it at that….obviously a smart decision!

Point #8 has always been one of my pet peeves since I learned how to write scripts many years ago. While it’s true that there will always be some type of ‘love’ relationship in all scripts, the part that TVB’s scriptwriters don’t seem
to understand is that ‘love relationship’ doesn’t always have to mean romantic love – there’s love between family, friends, even strangers that can be completely platonic. To me, putting too many complicated love relationships into a series whose focus is
not above that at all totally detracts from the original story itself (I think the writer read my mind here because the first example that came to my mind when I read this one was also DIF IV, as that has always been the biggest ‘complaint’ I had about the
series – though of course there are many others with the same problem too).

Point #9 is one that I think pretty much everyone agrees with as being a common ‘issue’ with HK series. I kind of think that HK (meaning TVB) series have a bigger problem with this than others because of the way they operate in terms of
casting and availability of artists and yes, the politics. Oh and of course, the ‘obsession’ with filming a sequel to practically every series with the same or similar cast doesn’t help either….

And finally, point #10 – another point well-made that is very true of many TVB investigative series. In fact, I feel this type of ‘everything goes’ finale should be ranked right up there with the cheesy BBQ ending thing that TVB gets criticized
about all the time (LOL). And poor Jessica – no wonder she doesn’t want to film for TVB anymore, especially since they keep giving her the same types of roles (that also go through the same types of experiences) over and over again….

5 comments:

Glad they mentioned the discriminating scripts of tvb series of portraying homosexuals and criminals as killers! I'd rather they not portray homosexuals at all cause they are doing more harm then good to the community! It doesn't help that Gary Tong's scripts for Files of Justice and Healing Hands were also homophobic portraying homosexuals who would turn straight as if being gay was just a "phase". Also just cause William So's character was gay earlier in Healing Hands he some how gets aids while saving patient, really?

I didn't watch Officer Geomancer since I don't watch TVB series anymore but when I heard the serial killer was a lesbian again (from my parents commentary), in my mind I was like, oh great another series that spreads discrimination and portrays homosexuals as crazy people *rolls eyes*

I remember someone commented on facebook or hk golden forum in regards to Fong Ying in The Menu how finally they have a homosexual character that's actually normal for a change! Goes to show how sad and discriminating TVB's series are!

@sport: I agree with you -- it's definitely shameful the way TVB portrays homosexuals. I'm actually not sure whether the way they portray homosexuals is reflective of their bias or whether they just don't know how to handle the topic -- if it's the latter, I would prefer they not touch the topic period rather than project such negative and biased ideals on society (especially knowing how much their series impact audiences).

I will say that I from what I've seen, I definitely appreciate HKTV's portrayal of homosexuals in their series (in the 2 instances I saw in The Menu and Doom + 5) much more. Either HKTV's scriptwriters 'get it' (which is great) or as The Menu's scriptwriter Poon Man Hung said, she doesn't have experience handling the topic of homosexuality in her scripts, so she would rather just touch on it briefly and not expand -- definitely a smart move that I wish TVB would've done.

This article is so point on! Investigative series are no longer fun since they're so predictable. I was laughing so hard at #4 Suspects confess voluntarily. The criminals ALWAYS end up confessing or turning themselves in. The police don't even have to do anything at all.

@miriamfanz: Definitely, this article was great! Not only was it spot on with the characteristics, I also enjoyed the sarcastic, witty spin that the writer took. Also, the examples that the writer used really helped to drive the points home.

Haha…so true about the police not having anything to do! Oh and the other thing I would add too is how in most of the investigative series, all the cases are “neatly” and “completely” solved when in real life, there are so many unsolved and cold cases out there, probably more than solved cases in some instances. Sort of goes back to point #3 about the main leads being too “perfect” – seems they are able to solve each case they get every single time….come on now, not all cops in real life are THAT competent!

Point on but my major beef is definitely the many sappy love relationships, and complicated to boot. I'd rather have the main leads eschewing romance outright but high on mutual respect for each other's skills. I've not watched DIF series, so can't comment on it.